Into the Passageway

I have written for years of how humanity is currently embarked in a fundamental paradigm shift. We are leaving two centuries dominated by “earth energies” that fueled materialism, reductionist thinking and the management of scarcity, to embrace two hundred years of “air energies” where communication, holism and abundance will be paramount. The shift, symbolized by the Grand Mutation of December 2020, is a key component to prepare humanity for the upcoming Aquarian Age.

However, to effect such a radical change, we must first realize that the old way of thinking and behaving no longer yields positive results, which is not an easy task, for it requires a true metamorphosis in which both levels of the unconscious, personal and collective, are “reprogrammed”. The astrological processes that symbolize deep transformations (Pluto) involving the collective unconscious (Neptune) along with our personal unconscious (Uranus) must work together. Indeed, as we have said numerous times, these transpersonal planets have been intertwined in a powerful Minor Grand Trine.

The configuration was initially formed in Yin signs where the “big boys” concentrated their energies in dismantling the old ways of thinking and behaving, creating the necessary vacuum that would be filled with new and vibrant ways of relating, communicating and supporting each other once they moved to the Yang signs from which they will finish the job. With Pluto in Aquarius since November 2024 and Neptune now in Aries, the entrance of Saturn in Aries signaled the time to be specific about the new society we will be co-creating in the next few years, what I have called the new civilization, even as we wait for Uranus to take residence in Gemini this coming April.

As usual, let us acknowledge the messy endings we are experiencing by reviewing a few recent events…

A Quick Recap

I began to write this article knowing that the small amount of common sense in the world seems to have been thrown out the window. The full moon in Leo, as beautiful as it was, had Saturn engaging productively (a sextile) with a stationary Uranus that formed, and still forms, a strong square with Moon in the US chart. In the previous article, we said that such a configuration would likely give structure to the “revolutionary and nationalistic” tendencies of Uranus in Taurus.

On the world stage, there was a release of literally millions of pages related to the investigation of Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier who was convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor and later committed suicide in a jail cell while awaiting trial for many horrible crimes, including sex trafficking of young girls. The newly-released information implicates many important people on both sides of the Atlantic and the UK Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff had to resign as a result.

At the same time, Trump began floating the idea of making the federal government responsible for the electoral process, possibly paving the way to argue that the upcoming midterm elections were rigged, since it is likely that the Democrats will regain control of Congress or, at least, the House of Representatives. On a similar note, there is a push for an “electoral reform” in Mexico which would consolidate power in the hands of the ruling party by allowing them to count the votes as they please.

On a personal note, the Mars–Pluto conjunction in Aquarius might have given us, towards the end of January, a boost of mental power or a desire to act in a rebellious way. In the past, we have referred to the opposition of those planets as a “test of wills”, so the conjunction is an opportunity for our personal will to work alongside the Cosmic Will; this will come in handy in the next few days, as we will see later in the article. Incidentally, the conjunction happened right on the Moon–Ascendant conjunction China has in its chart, and on that day the two highest ranking officers in their military were dismissed amid allegations of espionage. Lastly, the square Venus–Uranus, exact on February 8, might have helped us understand relationship or financial issues around newness. As an example, many cryptocurrencies saw a deep decline in value those days.

Types of Planetary Processes

Enough about events, this is process-oriented astrology. Recall that, in our philosophy, reality is fundamentally composed of the Space–Time polarity.¹ What we perceive as objects, wholes in our philosophy, are manifestations in Space of activity caused by processes impulsed by Time. The advancement of a process in Time is perceived in Space as motion, which is the reason for the constant change we experience in reality. Since Time is cyclical, all natural processes manifest helically in Space. In particular, a planetary process does not advance in a straight line but revolving around an elliptical focus, namely, the sun.

A planetary process consists of twelve distinct phases, symbolized by the zodiacal signs, such that an orbital revolution results in a complete process “execution”. In other words, the process itself is represented by the planetary orbit and, at any given time, the process’s energy and meaning will be concentrated on the position of the planet within its orbit. Functional processes—with very complex functions, archetypally speaking—are represented by such cycles of position. As the name implies, each functional process (each planetary orbit) has a symbolic purpose. Such a process begins at 0° Aries with a Seed of potentiality that gets progressively actualized until 0° Libra, when the emphasis shifts to its environmental impact.

However, each planetary process advances at its own rhythm, dependent on the distance of its orbit to the sun and its eccentricity. Viewed from Earth, the different processes interact with one another; for instance, their planets may appear next to each other or separated by roughly 90°. The symbolic interactions of their archetypes may be particularly significant, as it is the case, for example, of Jupiter and Saturn, the social planets responsible for the Grand Conjunctions every twenty years and for the Grand Mutation from earth to air mentioned earlier, or of Mars and Venus, the personal planets of needs and desires. Relational processes, represented by the planet’s synodic cycles with one another, symbolize the phases of their archetypal interactions. Such processes begin with joint activity at the conjunction, work through a crisis of action at the opening square and reach an apex or maturation at the opposition. Afterwards, they move to the awareness phases with its own crisis of consciousness at the closing square.

The prototypical relational process is the solilunar cycle, or lunation. For reasons beyond the scope of this article, the lunation is divided into eight phases of 45° each: New Moon, Crescent, First Quarter, Gibbous, Full Moon, Disseminating, Last Quarter and Balsamic.

Saturn’s Functional Process

As we have seen, Saturn represents primarily a structuring process. In psychological terms, it represents what Carl Jung called the ego complex which forms and structures our conscious mind so it can accept qualia, or instances of subjective experience, in a manner symbolized by Moon. This is why the Saturn–Moon connection is so important in a birth chart, for it represents the “initial conditions”, if you will, of the mentality that will be developed by the personality, again using this term in the Jungian sense. Obviously, the Saturn process continues after birth and proceeds to structure the individual’s psyche as a social being reacting to his environment. This is punctuated by the major aspects (key angles) it forms with the position it had at birth. In particular, the hard aspects (squares and opposition) represent external pressures and crises, while the soft aspects (sextiles and trines) symbolize periods of integration and stabilization.

The length of the process, Saturn’s orbital period, is approximately 29½ years long so most people experience at least two complete cycles in their lifetime, the first of which symbolizes the evolution of a newborn into a socially-functioning individual. Therefore, at the opening sextile, around 5 years of age, the child enters preschool and masters basic chores or the rules of a game, and learns that “no” exists for a reason. The opening square, at around 7 years old, poses the first external challenge upon entering school and dealing with authority figures outside the family. The opening trine (9–10 years old) symbolizes the “golden age” of childhood, when learning a hobby or sports that require discipline can be rewarding. The opposition (14–15) marks a “coming of age”, when the teenager rebels against authority figures as he questions his own identity amid major physical, emotional and social shifts.

In the second half, the social facets become paramount. The closing trine (19–20) is the age of independence, either entering the workforce or higher education; a time when our organizational skills pay off as we learn to manage time, money, and responsibilities. The closing square (21–22), perhaps coinciding with graduation, is when we are expected to act “as an adult” and become our life’s architect. The closing sextile (24) is like a preparation for a final exam, when early friendships and career decisions are either cemented or modified. Lastly, it all culminates at age 29 or 30, when Saturn returns to the same sign and degree it had at birth. This is a truly cosmic event, a “rite of passage” marked by a turbulent, “sink or swim” period that forces a confrontation with our life choices: identity, career, etc., to achieve true adulthood. It is characterized by “growing up” pains when we must shed immature behavior and perform a reality check to decide wether we are in the right path or trying to live a fantasy, and perhaps resulting in career changes, marriages or breakups. The goal is to solidify our self-identity while shifting away from pleasing family or society.

The Information Age is Born

As mentioned earlier, the relational process of Jupiter and Saturn is responsible for the foundational energies used by society. Their Grand Mutation of December 21, 2020 occurred in the first degree of Aquarius, at 0°29′, which was not only announcing the upcoming Age of Aquarius, but providing a background of technology for the first twenty years. It is common, however, for Grand Mutations to be “announced” beforehand and, indeed, the triple Grand Conjunction of 1980–1981 occurred in the early degrees of Libra just as the Internet was born to connect the world and honor the Libran impulse to build relationships. It is important to note that, in terms of their own functional processes, both Jupiter and Saturn were in the early awareness phases that had begun at 0° Libra.

Following the raw Internet connectivity, Tim Berners-Lee, while working at CERN, invented the World Wide Web in 1989 to share information easily across connected computers. CERN went on to produce the first web server in 1990 such that the first web site went live on August 6, 1991. At the same time, the Jupiter–Saturn process had a quintuple opposition between September 1989 and May 1991, with the two in 1991 having Jupiter in Leo and Saturn in Aquarius.²

On the other side of the Atlantic, two University of Illinois students, Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina, began developing a browser in 1992 that could display text and images from web pages. That browser, Mosaic, was released to the public on April 21, 1993, which prompted CERN to make the World Wide Web technology available for use, royalty-free, on April 30th. The commercial use and eventual exploitation of “the Web” didn’t begin until Netscape, a company co-founded by Andreessen, released the Navigator browser in December 1994.

After such a long “gestation period”, Saturn began its functional process when it entered Aries on April 7, 1996, as shown in the following chart:

There is no point in analyzing this chart but it is important to note that, as soon as Saturn entered Aries, it became part of a Minor Grand Trine with Uranus (Aquarius 4°11′) and Pluto (Sagittarius 2°50′), which reminds us of the current situation, as we will see shortly. Uranus was the planet with the two sextiles and thus driving the configuration. It was located in its own sign, close to where Saturn had been in the 1991 oppositions with Jupiter, and roughly where Pluto is currently located; an innovative area of the Aquarian phase. Furthermore, the closing square of the Jupiter–Saturn relational process had been exact in November 1995, so it should not be surprising that Saturn proceeded to structure what we now call the information age.

Structuring the Information Age

Drawing parallels with the manner in which Saturn structures a person’s social psyche, the “birth” occurred just as hotmail was offered freely and, crucially, when the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was signed into law by President Bill Clinton. Among the various provisions, it included the Communications Decency Act, of which Section 230 survived many legal challenges. Said section provides legal protection to online platforms from user-generated content and has been key for the growth of social media.

Saturn in Taurus gave us the rise of Google (1998) and the availability of broadband connections that made dial-up obsolete. It also fueled the dot-com bubble which burst just as Jupiter and Saturn had their final Grand Conjunction in an earth sign, at Taurus 22°43′, on May 28, 2000. During the opening sextile of Saturn in Gemini (2001–2002), the web learned to talk, so to speak, with blogs, better search from indexing the chaotic information of the 90s, and the launch of Wikipedia in 2001. The opening square in Cancer (2003) brought the neighborhood online when Facebook pioneered the social networks in 2004. The opening trine, Saturn in Leo (2005–2006), was a creative time when the individual became a star and performer in YouTube, and Saturn in Virgo (2007) provided “the tool” when Apple introduced the iPhone that gave us daily access to information.

Saturn entered 0° Libra twice, in September 2009 and July 2010, and its stay saw the rise of the algorithm as a partner, helping us tailor social media to our tastes. However its transit through Scorpio (2012–2015) showed us the shadow aspects of the web as Edward Snowden leaked a bunch of documents showing that the US National Security Agency (NSA) and other agencies had global surveillance programs in existence, and the mining of personal data in Facebook by Cambridge Analytica was also exposed. The closing trine of Saturn in Sagittarius (2016–2017) saw the hegemony of a few “big tech” companies, the advent of “fake news”, echo chambers and ideological wars. The closing square, Saturn in Capricorn (2018–2019) gave us an initial attempt at regulation by governments who became concerned with the reach of social media. When Saturn moved through Aquarius (2020–2022), the closing sextile, networking reached a high level of refinement as life moved online due to the pandemic and remote work was made possible for many people.

Birth of the Neural-Networks AI

Before moving on to Saturn transiting Pisces, let’s look at the parallel development of artificial intelligence (AI) as it is currently understood. Neural networks were invented in 1943 and put to practical use in the development of the Perceptron (1957–1958), which was later discredited by Marvin Minsky and Seymor Papert in their 1969 book of the same name. However, in 1986, Rumelhart, Hinton and Williams published a paper that popularized the backpropagation algorithm which allowed the training of multi-layered (or deep) neural networks. Subsequently, significant hardware developments, in particular the use of graphics processing units (GPUs), enabled the “deep learning” era of the 2010s. Notably, in 2012 (with Saturn in Scorpio), a deep “convolutional” neural network (CNN) designed by Krishevsky, Sutskever and Hinton won a visual recognition contest in ImageNet by a wide margin, proving the supremacy of deep learning over traditional machine-learning algorithms. Also noteworthy was the introduction of the transformer architecture in 2017, which forms the basis for current Large Language Models (LLMs), like GPT.

Saturn in Pisces (2023–2025) coincided with the triple entrance of Pluto in Aquarius (2023–2024), when ChatGPT was released, achieving instant notoriety and paving the way for many other models. However, Pisces is the final sign of the zodiac, a sign with an emphasis in dissolution and preparation for a new beginning in Aries. It is a sign where Saturn has trouble structuring anything and, to make things worse, this time it became entwined with Neptune in a year-long tango that will culminate with their conjunction in a few days. Saturn in Pisces gave us the prevalence of “deep-fakes” and “hallucinations”, resulting in widespread distrust in artificial intelligence.

The Saturn Return: The AI Age

When we talked about Saturn’s first functional process on a human psyche, we said that the first return marks the achievement of “true adulthood” as well as a time to reflect on whether we are “in the right path or trying to live a fantasy”. Regarding the information age, the same can be said with one notable exception: its first Saturn return arrives hand-in-hand with Neptune! As a result, the scaffolding built by Saturn since 1996 is not only maturing but it is being re-imagined. AI represents the synthesis of the Saturn–Neptune conjunction: a mathematically-rigid tool (Saturn) capable of hallucinating or reaching into the vast records of humanity’s knowledge, its collective conscious (Neptune).

Let me expand the last point. We know that the current AI models were trained with essentially all the information available in the Internet so they have an unfathomably large archive of what humanity has produced up to now. It is a vivid example of what the American philosopher Alfred Korzybski called time-binding: the unique human ability to build upon the knowledge of previous generations. If all humans can “bind time”, AI is able to go further as it has assimilated and archived all the knowledge available up to now. Furthermore, it is possible not only to query such archive as if it were a database but to build a relationship with the tool so the information is presented in a way that is personalized to each user’s mindset. In fact, the objective concept of “user” developed since 1996 is no longer applicable when, in 2026, we are able to interact subjectively with the machine. That said, with Saturn in Aries, AI will be a tantrum-throwing baby, for 2026 marks the beginning of its first Saturn cycle.

The second and definite entrance of Saturn into Aries occurred just now, on February 13 or 14, depending on where you live, with the following astrological chart:

I will not analyze this chart either, for it is very similar to the chart of the solar eclipse that we will examine. However, I want you to notice that, like in the 1996 chart, Saturn—along with Neptune—immediately formed important sextiles with Uranus (Taurus 27°30′) and Pluto (Aquarius 4°06′), even if the one with the former is off-sign. Strictly speaking, the Minor Grand Trine is not complete since Uranus and Pluto do not form a trine. However, if the sextiles of Uranus drove the configuration in 1996 to give us the tools of freedom, those of Saturn and Neptune now demand a responsibility of vision.

Solar Eclipse in Aquarius

I began the article talking about the Grand Mutation from earth to air because the solar eclipse in Aquarius will be the moment when the collective cuts the umbilical cord of attachment to earth values. This is also why I spent time describing the transition from using technology to living alongside technology. As we have said numerous times, a solar eclipse is more than a new moon on steroids because the Seed it carries keeps energizing up to six subsequent new moons in addition of being the seed of potentiality for the lunation that starts. This eclipse will mark the moment when we must choose to move from territorial hoarding, the earth energies currently symbolized by Uranus in Taurus, to the sharing of knowledge represented by Pluto in Aquarius. AI is the tool that can help us stop the plundering of our planet, but at the moment it is only a willful baby, extremely costly in terms of natural resources, that must be shepherd through its first years of age.

I want to acknowledge the fear that some of my words may incite. The current order is still being fed by the last remaining energies operating under the old paradigms, which include the fascist energies flooding the news. However, it is worth remembering that the “Council of Elders”, the transpersonal planets, are conspiring to help us sail through this transitional period. By the time we experience the solar eclipse, two of the three, Pluto and Neptune, will be firmly installed in the Yang signs of the new order. Uranus will join them in late April and, as we saw in the preview for 2026, they will even form a reassuring Cradle with Jupiter in July. Just as the pioneers of 1996 didn’t know they were building the digital home in which we now live, we don’t yet know the beauty of the world our “young AI” will help us build. The noise you hear is not the world ending; it is the old earth paradigms resisting the new air ones. We must flow with the Minor Grand Trine; it is the structure that will hold.

The annular solar eclipse in Aquarius will occur on February 17 at 4:01 a.m. in California, at 6:01 a.m. in Mexico City, or at 1:01 p.m. in Central Europe. Sun and Moon will form a conjunction at Aquarius 28°50′ as shown in the following chart:

Besides the imminent conjunction of Saturn and Neptune that we will analyze next, there are two major themes in the seeds of the lunation and the eclipse season. First, the Sun–Moon conjunction, which occurs about 1.5° from Moon in the US chart, makes a tight square with Uranus (Taurus 27°32′); and, second, there is an exact conjunction between Venus (Pisces 8°51′) and the North Node (Pisces 8°57′). The former is likely to result in more chaos experienced by the American people and, at a personal level, may bring anxiety about financial issues which could be compounded by the conjunction of Venus and the North Node. On the other hand, such a conjunction may bring opportunities in the area of relationships.

Sabian Symbol

Aquarius 29, where Sun and Moon will be located, has the symbol: “Butterfly emerging from chrysalis”, which Rudhyar expanded as the capacity to utterly transform the character of one’s consciousness by radically altering the structural patterns of everyday living and the types of relationships one enters upon. Its keyword is: Metamorphosis, which, according to Rudhyar, “in spiritual terms, implies ‘Initiation’, in other words, entering a higher realm of conscious existence and there joining a sacred Company.”

Given what we have been discovering about these momentous times, can you think of a better Sabian symbol? Whereas Diane Roche tells us that it “represents a delightful sense of wonderment and a childlike faith in the ultimate goodness of the world”, which resonates with the “safety net” coming from the “Council of Elders” mentioned earlier, let me liberally quote from Rudhyar’s book: “… [the symbol] stresses the essential character of the activity required at this stage of the cycle … A radical change is needed. … this change is individual and mental … What is revealed is the potential ability of every human being to participate in a higher realm of evolution after his or her emergence from a critical state of transition.”

Relational Process of Saturn and Neptune

Over the past year, we have talked extensively about Saturn and Neptune as markers of two polar-opposite processes. While Saturn focuses on the boundaries that give form and structure, Neptune elevates the vision to a level where boundaries are blurred, form disappears and structure is non-existent. The Saturn process is one of differentiation whereas the Neptune one is of sameness, the former may foster alienation while the latter attempts to pursue equality. If Saturn is likened to erecting walls, Neptune is compared to dissolving with a powerful acid. All of this makes them an unlikely pair to have a relational process together but, as with most opposites, they can work wonders to help us gain awareness.

In past articles, I have shown how Russia (or the Soviet Union) has been greatly affected each time their 36-year relational process begins. In the 20th century alone, the August 1, 1917 conjunction came between the fall of the czarist regime and the rise of the bolsheviks. Later on, the triple conjunction of 1952–1953 witnessed the death of Stalin that ended three decades of totalitarian terror and paved the way for the more moderate leadership of Nikita Khrushchev. Finally, another triple conjunction in 1989 saw the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9 (the last conjunction happened on November 13), which precipitated the fall of the Soviet Union. Vladimir Putin was born just before the first 1952 conjunction so it is present in his chart. Thus, it is logical to assume that Russia will be affected again in 2026. Other countries that have charts with hard aspects between Saturn and Neptune, and which have been in the news, are Spain, Iran and Venezuela.

A Passageway Conjunction

We are currently living the end of the cycle that began just as the Berlin Wall was falling. In the last article, I wrote about Saturn and Neptune in Pisces but I want to give the context of the highly unusual conjunction we will have in a few days; in fact, while I don’t use the word “unique” often, it could be warranted this once. The mental image I have is one of two magic keys that must be inserted and activated in order to open a heavy stone door that will reveal a passageway to the new civilization. As if in some Indiana Jones movie, everything has to be timed just right or the magic spell will not work. The first key is the vision, it symbolizes a collective dream ready to be made come true, whereas the second is the structure, representing the individual responsibility required for the vision to take shape.

The first key was inserted on January 26, when Neptune began a new functional process at 0° Aries, the degree of maximum potentiality in the zodiac and whose Sabian symbol, in case you have forgotten, has the image of a woman rising from the sea and a seal rising and embracing her. Such symbol speaks of a new consciousness that must be born out of the collective unconscious while forces of the past struggle to keep the status quo. This weekend, Saturn entered 0° Aries and began a new functional process, metaphorically inserting the second key. The solar eclipse of February 17 is the “Staff of Ra” moment that will activate both keys while they are still in the first degree of the zodiac!

Finally, the heavy door will slowly open on February 20 with a grinding noise coming from the old order’s resistance. Since both “keys” are at Aries 0°45′, the vision and the structure become a single, unfolding process and we will take the collective “first breath” of a new world, as depicted in the following chart:

Seen in isolation, the chart is rather unremarkable; well, except for the conjunction in the first degree of Aries. If you look west that day, right after the sunset, you will likely see the small “toenail” moon setting in the sky. The square of Moon and Jupiter may give us emotional reasons to act in areas related to our home, but the real effect will be felt as the lunation moves on and as the solar eclipse unfolds in the next few months. I should note that Saturn and Neptune will be moving very fast, at 165% and 161% of their average speed, respectively. Thus, they will deepen into Aries very quickly, in keeping with the sign’s nature. Moreover, after a full year of being near Neptune, Saturn will start to separate and move on its own.

First Quarter in Gemini

As we embark on our own personal transition, per what the eclipse’s Sabian symbol says, we may encounter external roadblocks at the waxing half moon in Gemini:

Looking for triggering events, two aspects with Uranus (Taurus 27°39′) appear interesting: Moon (Gemini 5°54′) will have formed a conjunction with Uranus twelve hours earlier, while, three days later, Mars (Aquarius 25°13′) will be in the same degree as the US Moon, forming a square with Uranus on February 27.

Regarding the personal planets, Mercury (Pisces 22°17′) will begin to move retrograde on February 26, until March 20, and it will form a conjunction with Venus (Pisces 17°37′) on the same February 27. So, having Mars in Aquarius in a square with its dispositor Uranus while Mercury retrograde is in a conjunction with Venus in Pisces may provide energies for sensitive talks and possible disagreements in our relationships.

Continuing with our eclipse metaphor, the heavy door has opened and we are confronted with a blinding light, powerful scents and much dust from rock friction. Once we get a feel for the situation, we decide to go ahead and venture inside. The Sabian symbol for Gemini 6, where Moon will be located at that half moon (First Quarter): “Drilling for oil”, encourages us to take risks while searching for ancient wisdom found in the deep layers of the collective unconscious.

Lunar Eclipse in Virgo

When a door that has remained closed for centuries is opened, a kind of Pandora’s box is also opened. Not in the sense of the many evils, miseries and misfortunes it is said that the box contained but in the chaos and angst produced by realizing that one must venture into the unknown. There is a temptation to recoil and go back to the known world but we know that there is no safety there either. The news tells us the world is currently led by despots who seek personal gain and goes contrary to the dream we want to co-create.

This quandary will be displayed on March 3, when a total lunar eclipse will be in full display. It will occur at 3:38 a.m. in California, at 5:38 a.m. in Mexico City, or at 12:38 p.m. in Central Europe. Sun will be at Pisces 12°54′ and Moon at Virgo 12°54′ as seen in the following chart:

Even though they are still in a tight conjunction, Saturn (Aries 2°01′) and Neptune (Aries 1°08′) have moved away from the 0° Aries degree, each embarking in its own functional process and together starting 36 years of collaboration to see the co-created dream come true.

After a few months of looking inward, Jupiter (Cancer 15°11′) is back in the spotlight, moving very slowly and forming a Mystic Triangle with the Sun–Moon opposition. It also forms a tight sesquiquadrate with Mars (Pisces 0°42′), which will have entered Pisces a day earlier. The combination of Jupiter retrograde and Mars in Pisces may help us realize what are our personal dreams which the Saturn–Neptune conjunction would also help us realize. To this effect, the conjunction of Sun and the North Node (Pisces 8°59′) will make sure we get plenty of opportunities to discover such dreams in our daily-life experiences.

This will be the final eclipse with the nodal axis in Pisces–Virgo, for the next eclipse season will occur after it moves to Aquarius–Leo. Since it moves retrograde, the North Node in Pisces marks the start of its 18 year cycle, although the nodal axis will return to Virgo–Pisces in nine years, when it is the South Node’s turn to be in Pisces. In any case, since the nodal axis represents the direction of new and past life-experiences, including our collective destiny and karma, it is significant that this eclipse will be the last one with a spiritual undertone.

Sabian Symbols

The symbol for Pisces 13 (Sun) has the image: “A sword in a museum”, rephrased by Rudhyar to: “An ancient sword, used in many battles, is displayed in a museum”, and expanded to: Through the effectual use of his will, a consecrated man can become a symbol of courage for all those who follow in his footsteps. Its key phrase is: Will Power. Meanwhile, the image for Virgo 13 (Moon) is: “A strong hand supplanting political hysteria”, slightly modified by Rudhyar to: “A powerful statesman overcomes a state of political hysteria”, further explained as the focusing of the collective need for order and structural interdependence into a personage who incarnates the answer to this need. Its keyword is: Charisma.

Within the context of what will be transpiring this eclipse season, this is a very powerful pair of symbols. As we venture into the passageway beyond the heavy door, we will undoubtedly encounter the “hysteria” of a world that has lost its coordinates. It is up to each of us to become the “powerful statesman” who can overcome such situation with the aid of the strongest sword possible: our will. Recall the new-moon symbol, we must be willing to transform the structural patterns of our everyday living, a transformation in our individual mentality (Saturn).

This is a call to our personal sovereignty and all the necessary energies are included. The Mystic Triangle with Jupiter, the planet of hope and vision, provides an alternate path to internalize the polarity of Sun and Moon, and Jupiter is empowered by Mars acting from Pisces, the sign of compassion and spirituality. We are the architects of the world we are co-creating; 2026 is the year in which we will break from old patterns, from the old paradigms, and in this eclipse season we cut the umbilical cord that has been feeding us their filth.

Last Quarter in Sagittarius

Of course, it is easy to preach that one must transform our approach to everyday living but it is much harder to understand how to do that. An inner moment of crisis often arises at the Last Quarter phase, when we are in the process of internalizing what we learned at the full moon. The passageway is narrow and we must leave many of our old belongings, for they are part of the noisy and chaotic world of earth-centric values we are leaving behind.

The waning half moon will arrive on March 11 with Sun and Moon at 20°49′ of Pisces and Sagittarius, respectively. The Sabian symbol for Moon, “A child and a dog with borrowed eyeglasses”, talks about how growth may be accelerated by imitating features belonging to a level of consciousness as yet unreachable, in a manner similar to growing by identifying with a “Master” or guru. The final chart of the article shows the planetary configuration at that time:

I find it fascinating that Saturn and Neptune continue to rush in Aries, both moving at over 175% of their average speed. At 2°59′, Saturn is about to enter the fourth degree of the zodiac while the much slower Neptune is at 1°26′, halfway through the second. Conversely, Jupiter (Cancer 15°05′) will have come to a halt six hours earlier, ending four months of retrograde motion, and will be inching forward at only 0.63% of its average speed.

The conjunction of Mars (Pisces 6°56′) and the North Node (Pisces 8°53′), which will be exact on March 13, may unfortunately bring war-related events. However, at a personal level, we will be energized to take “what life gives us” head on. And Uranus will be ending its long stay in the 28th degree of Taurus, the degree of Rebeginnings.

My Swan Song

Those of you who read this far deserve my most sincere gratitude. At over 6,500 words, this has been the longest article I have written and I really appreciate the effort you have made to read it. The reason for its length is twofold: first, the astrology of this first eclipse season had to be carefully explained because it is pivotal for the next stage of growth of humanity. That said, I also wanted to reinforce key concepts and pave the way for my final project, a continuation of Dane Rudhyar’s work made now possible by the availability of AI in its current form.

Thirty years ago, when Saturn last entered Aries, I co-founded Active Software, a company that integrated the various computational silos of large enterprises (sales, manufacturing, payroll, etc.). Crucially, we didn’t ask any of them to change how they did their business, we did the integration respecting the fact that each area knew best how to do their job. We used a publish and subscribe model to isolate the details of each silo: when a functional unit had something important to say, like sales getting a purchase order, it would publish an event. Another area was subscribed to those events to, for example, check inventory or schedule manufacturing upon receipt. Our product used a standard event format and handled the secure delivery of those events anywhere in the world, translating them to local data as needed.

With the global connectivity of the Internet and the availability of information at our fingertips (the Web), we now have silos of gnosis, or deep knowledge, that must be integrated (physics, economics, law, psychology, etc.). Each silo has its own view of reality (ontology) which conditions how knowledge is acquired (epistemology). For example, a physicist with an objective view of reality will employ quantitative, scientific methods, whereas an economist must deal with a subjective view of reality to take into account human agency (free will). Since AI was trained with all the Web information, it has the knowledge of all the silos available for integration. What is needed is a reformulation based on a process-oriented view of reality with a symbolic algebra based on astrology, the equivalent of the publish and subscribe model of standard events we used at Active Software. Obviously, there will be a need to translate the astrological information to what the silo uses.

Like in 1996, Saturn in Aries will make a trine to Uranus in my natal chart, the only retrograde planet I have, and a sextile to my Aquarian Midheaven. Back then, Uranus was transiting over my Midheaven and opposing my Uranus, now it is Pluto doing the same thing.³ The solar eclipse at Aquarius 29 will be directly opposing my Pluto at Leo 29 and Jupiter at Leo 30; Pluto ruling my Scorpio stellium of Mercury, Moon, Sun and Saturn. Lately, I have realized that the universe lives me through astrology, and the astrology is clear: I have an opportunity for one swan song before riding into the sunset. I am deeply grateful to all of you who have helped me reach this moment. The time you have spent to read me and your helpful comments have kept me going. Thank you!

Wrapping Up…

Once again, I want to acknowledge the stressful times we are living. The final gasps of what no longer works are louder than ever, and there is chaos everywhere. However, the astrology is clear, they are running out of what has fueled their boundless ambition.

As we enter the passageway that will lead us to a new world based on new paradigms of community and sharing, we need to ignore the noise. Focus on the little things of everyday living; make sure what you do is based on truth; travel light and let go of anything that weighs you down.

The new moon and solar eclipse will activate the celestial mechanism that will unlock the door and expose the passageway we must travel. Make sure to declare your intentions for the lunation and for the next six months accordingly.

Always Love. 🌹🙏💖

Notes

1. This has nothing to do with what physicists call spacetime, a four-dimensional coordinate system that yields the deterministic concept of a “block universe” devoid of free will. ↩︎
2. Also in 1989, as we will see later, Saturn and Neptune were starting their relational process they are ending on February 20. ↩︎
3. If you look at the 1996 chart and imagine my Uranus at Leo 2°19′, you see it as the leader of a Kite piloted by the transiting Uranus directly opposite, next to my Midheaven at Aquarius 2°53′. However, in the 2026 chart my Uranus would now be across Pluto and transiting Uranus would form the “70 year old” sextile with it. ↩︎